Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party President BS Yeddyurappa on Tuesday called the result of the trust vote in the Assembly a “victory of democracy”, ANI reported. The Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition lost the floor test after 99 MLAs voted in favour of it, but 105 legislators voted against it.
“The coalition govt has collapsed after 14 months,” Yeddyurappa said, according to News9. “People were fed up with the Congress-JD(S) coalition. I assure the people of Karnataka that a new era of development will begin from now on.”
“We assure the farmers that we will give more importance to them in the coming days,” he added. “We will take an appropriate decision at the soonest.”
Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, meanwhile, headed to the Raj Bhavan in Bengaluru to hand over his resignation to Governor Vajubhai Vala.
The Karnataka BJP was also happiness with the result of the trust vote. “It’s the victory of people of Karnataka,” the party unit tweeted. “It’s the end of an era of corrupt and unholy alliance. We promise a stable and able governance to the people of Karnataka. Together we will make Karnataka prosperous again.”
On the other hand, the Karnataka Congress called it a “temporary defeat for democracy”. The party tweeted that the result of the floor test was a defeat for Karnataka by the conspiracy of the “anti-constitutional, anti-democratic” Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the BJP.
“Whenever evil has triumphed it is always momentary,” the party added. “Truth will prevail & democracy will ultimately win. Goodness eternally prevails & we will conquer & root out this corrupt practices of disregarding people mandate.” The party thanked the people of Karnataka for their support.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah claimed that the people’s mandate was for the Congress and JD(S) coalition. “People’ mandate was for our alliance even if we consider the vote share,” he said on Twitter. “Both our parties together got 54.44% votes. We did form the alliance based on this mandate.”
“BJP did not get the majority both in terms of seat or vote share in 2018 elections but inspite of this, [BS Yeddyurappa] took oath but failed to prove the majority,” he added. “Had he got little more time, he would have operated back then only.”
Siddaramaiah said it was clearly evident that BJP leaders were behind this “disgusting political game plan”. “People are not fools to not understand this [and] they will teach BJP leaders a great lesson in the coming elections,” he said. “How is it right to destabilize stable [government] for their selfish reasons? Service to public is the only motivation for us to enter politics. It is not a job but a passion. If we don’t have an ideology, there will be no point of being in public space. I believe in the Constitution & it envisages social justice for all which is also my vision.”
Congress MLA HK Patil said the party had been betrayed by its own legislators, ANI reported. “This defeat is because of betrayal of our party legislators, we have come under the influence of various things,” he said. “I am sure people of Karnataka will not tolerate this type of betrayal to the party.”
BJP MLA Jagdish Shettar refused to divulge if the 16 rebel MLAs, who cost the coalition the majority, would join the saffron party, ANI reported. “Their [rebel MLAs] resignations have not yet been accepted by Speaker, after acceptance of resignations they have to decide whether to join BJP or not,” he said. “In present scenario we have 105 MLAs, it is a majority for BJP, we will form a stable government.”
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